24 October 2011

Photos from last weeks greeting card seminar....

We are back in work today after what seems like ages, what with The Henries, then The Manchester Gift Show, followed by three days down on the South East coast at The Ladder Club Seminar. We are back in creative mode working on our next designs, as well as trying to complete two designs for Christmas Gift Wrap for Christmas 2012.

It took us the whole day to get to the venue, the first leg was 2 hours on the train from Stockport to London Euston. Ryan Thomas (Aka Jason Grimshaw from Corrie) was on our train, we held him up struggling to get our bags in the luggage compartment and he was very pleasant indeed.

On our way through London we spotted a Taxi, that reminded us of our new gift wrap!!

Two tube rides from Euston to Fenchurch Street Station, stopping for lunch in between.

Then finally a 50 minute train ride to Westcliff On Sea .....

After arriving at our hotel and dumping our bags, it was a quick change before meeting up with Sharon from the GCA and Tracy from Progressive Greetings...

Industry experts spoke about all aspects of the Greeting Card Market, and included founder of the Ladder Club Lynn Tait of The Lynn Tait Gallery, Jakki Brown from Progressive Greetings and The Henries Awards, Debbie and Mark from G.F.Smith Paper Merchants, Bob from the Imaging Centre, Steve and Nicky from The Sherwood Press, Sharon Little from The Greeting Card Association, Jeremy Corner from Blue Eyed Sun and of course yours truly.

Around 100 delegates came to the 2 day seminar and went away with a wealth of knowledge. This event is key for new publishers, and also to existing publishers as it helps to keep the industry fresh, and the UK on top of a very creative industry.

Our role was to talk about our story, and the highs and lows of being a greeting card Publisher, so that delegates get a good idea of the industry and what they can expect, we also spoke about licensing and branding.

All in all it was a great two days, we all had positive feedback and we met some lovely people who we hope will become very successful in our fantastic industry.